Wimbledon: Nadal Downs Murray To Reach Final
Nadal overcomes Murray to near second straight trophy
Top seed Rafa Nadal has grabbed yet another Wimbledon final when he overcame crowd favorite Andy Murray in four sets, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 to edge his second straight title in London. The Spaniard, who will meet Novak Djokovic in the last term, is one win from completing a Roland Garros-Wimbledon double after he also defended his French Open title last month.
Despite a poor start, Rafa, who will drop second in the world standings next week due to Nole’s progress into the final, the 25-year-old managed to stun Murray by winning three sets in a row, claiming the victory in just over three hours. The Scott, who has been struggling to become the first Briton to win the Wimbledon event, buried himself with 39 unforced errors, compared to Rafa who only committed seven.
Fourth favorite Murray hit 42 winner instead, five more than his opponent, but allowed the defending champion to break him five times. Scott’s only break came late in the opener when he edged the main favorite in the 12th game. He won the first set in 54 minutes, but things were just about to get complicated. Playing with a pain in his foot, Andy conceded his first break in the fifth game of the second term, allowing Rafa to go 4-2 ahead of him. Even more than that, Rafa managed to pick yet another break on Murray’s next service, something which helped to level the overall score in half an hour.
The third set looked almost the same for the Spaniard who continued to set his own pace past lifeless Murray whose childish errors cost him a four-game deficit and thus another 2-6 loss. Rafa collected a couple of more break points in the first and seventh games respectively to take the first lead in 36 minutes.
Finally, the decider saw the same Nadal hold all his services and Murray concede yet another early break. From then on the Spaniard only held his serves, something which guaranteed him the victory, his 20th in a row at Wimbledon. The Mallorca born has now gone 16-11 past Murray whose last victory comes from the 2010 Toronto Masters.
Said Nadal: “It’s a dream to be back in the final. I feel sad for Andy. I think he deserved to be in the final. I wish him all the best for the rest of the year and the U.S. Open. I played very well to win against Andy. I need to play my best tennis. To beat him the only way is to play really great shots.”
En route to the final, Nadal has grabbed three straight three-set wins over Michael Russell, Ryan Sweeting and Gilles Muller, as well as another hard-fought one against Juan Martin Del Potro whom he ousted 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the fourth term. In the quarter finals he beat Mardy Fish 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 and is now likely to set his fifth meeting of the year with the eventual world number one Novaj Djokovic.
On the other side, Andy Murray had previously defeated Feliciano Lopez in three sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and Richard Gasquet 7-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the fourth term. The first terms had also brought him a big win over tough Ivan Ljubicic as well as another straight-set win against Tobias Kamke. The opening day saw him overcame Daniel Gimeno of Spain 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0.
Rafa’s next opponent Nole needed nearly three hours to eliminate world number 12 and Roger Federer’s killer Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whom the Serb defeated in four sets, 7-6, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3. Djokovic won 66 percent of serve points and hit 34 winners past the 12-ace Frenchman whose 29 unforced errors cost him the victory.
Nole first broke his opponent early in the first game, only to be broken back in the tenth one as Tsogna pushed the set into tie-break after one hour and five minutes. Unfortunately, he lost the pace during the breaker, allowing Djokovic to leave him three points adrift and take the first lead. Concerning the second set, it looked much easier to win for the Serb who eased past Tsonga in just under half an hour. The Serb grabbed a couple of breaks in the first and fifth games to go two sets ahead and near a clear victory.
But first he had to face a late scare from the Frenchman who seemed to repeat the same story he had done with Federer in the quarters, namely threatened with a comeback and cut the deficit to one set. Tsonga thus won the third round at tie-break which he won at the death 11-9. That could only trigger Nole’s late rally which saw the world number two power through to a quick 3-0 lead in the fourth term.
With a last effort, the Serb broke the Queens finalist and never let go of his own services. He won the fourth set in just over half an hour to secure his second Grand Slam final berth of the season after Australian Open. Previous to the semi final, Djokovic had defeated Bernard Tomic in four sets and Michael Llodra 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth round.
He has started the Wimbledon adventure with a couple of straight three-set victories against Jeremy Chardy and Kevin Anderson and moved on with a four-set one over Marcos Baghdatis in the third round. As for Tsonga, he had previously stunned six-time Wimbledon champion Federer in five sets, 3-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
In the fourth term, he had defeated this year’s Acapulco and Auckland champion David Ferrer, while the third term had brought him a straight-set win against Fernando Gonzalez of Chile. Tsonga, who has become a real threat after the great recent performances, made his debut with a 6-3, 7-6, 6-2 win against Go Soeda and a 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 one against Grigor Dimitrov.
Djokovic will thus meet Nadal for the 28th time, the head to head series between the two having gone 16-11 to the Spaniard, who has lost all his four meetings in 2011 with the Serb, and whose last wind dates from the 2010 World Finals in London. Nole last beat him at this term’s Rome Masters. This will also be their fifth final of the year, tenth overall.
Wimbledon Prize Money and points:
Winner – 1,100,000 pounds and 2000 points ATP
Runner-up – 550,000 pounds and 1,200 points ATP
Semi finalist – 275,000 pounds and 720 points ATP
Quarter finalist – 137,500 pounds and 360 points ATP
R16 – 68,750 pounds and 180 points ATP
R32 – 34,375 pounds and 90 points ATP
R64 – 20,125 pounds and 45 points ATP
R128 – 11,500 pounds and 10 points ATP
